250 best iPad apps: food and drink apps

Here, in part four of our series on the top 250 iPad apps, is our selection of
the best food and drink apps.

There are plenty of food and drink apps to suit your taste.Photo: Andrew Twort / Alamy

12:00PM BST 26 May 2011

One place where the iPad has done unexpectedly well is in the kitchen. Put it in a dock and it’s an ideal way to follow recipes, or even video instructions – as long as you keep your fingers clean, of course. With every TV chef clamouring to fill an app with their recipes, there is plenty of choice.

1 Epicurious (free)

The Epicurious app contains tens of thousands of recipes, organised thematically and searchable based on ingredients or keywords. Users can even search according to what they have in the fridge. The app creates a shopping list based on the recipes you have chosen and, once you’re ready to get cracking in the kitchen, makes it easy to follow the cooking instructions on screen.

2 Teach Me Sushi (£5.49)

This is a great app for teaching beginners exactly how to roll their first salmon nigiri. Video tutorials, twinned with bright photography and very clear, simply-written instructions, have helped thousands of people to create their first piece of sushi. This one is a highly recommended app for all sushi enthusiasts.

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A really helpful food shopping app — Ocado, the online supermarket — helps people do their supermarket shop on the move. Clever features include the offline shopping mode and Instant Shop mode which creates a user’s typical order, based on their previous deliveries. Rave user reviews have followed this app on to the iPad.

4 GoodFood Healthy Recipes (£2.39)

Extremely detailed app, with more than 150 healthy recipes. Each recipe includes photos, calorie count and has been triple-tested by Good Food magazine’s editorial team to check it that works perfectly. A recent welcome addition is a shopping list feature. All in all, a great app. However, a user’s favourites are often cleared after only a week.

5 The Video Cookbook (£3.49)

With only 124 recipes – this app has been critcised for not having enough content. But the format and interface work really well – making learning new recipes an easy, interactive and enjoyable experience. A good cooking app for those who like to watch a lesson in action.